Scene of the Crime: part I.

“So whaddya think?”

Lucas put his hand on his chin and lowered himself to one knee. The first officer on the scene said that she had discovered an open brick of fine-cut on a table in the back room, but this wasn’t a coke job. The Asian gentleman lying on the floor in a pale blue suit had a row of bullet sized holes across his chest. His eyes were glossy and stared at the plaster peeling from the ceiling. Time had already drained the blood from his face.

“I think he’s dead. That’s what I think.”

“No drek he’s dead, Lucas. I meant whaddya think he was selling?” The pudgy man standing behind Lucas had a raspy voice.

Lucas glanced around the store. There were two lanes of dull white kitchen appliances. The walls were splashed with useless electronic gadgets. Camcorders, pocket secretaries and the like. There were a few trideos in the back, small ones. The entire store carried the metallic stench of dried blood.

The pudgy man behind Lucas was named Dwight McAlester. His name was printed right below the badge that hung from a chain around his neck. He chuckled and his belly jiggled. “I don’t mean this stuff here Lucas. Everybody sells this crap. Look at his wrist. You see that Mitre-Rolex watch he’s wearin? Christ sake, I couldn’t make that kind of yen on the take. You sure as hell don’t pull it down sellin second-hand Kobiashi crap.”

Lucas nodded. He reached into his inside pocket and donned a pair of white rubber gloves. Now he raised the dead man’s watch arm. The man’s palm was cold and smeared with dark blood.

“He carried.” Lucas said. “Note the calluses around the base of his palm and thumb. Not only that, but he’s done time overseas.”

He rolled up the dead man’s sleeve a little then twisted his arm so his partner could see the tattoo. It was located on the inner wrist, just below the gold watch. The tattoo looked like a barcode, laser beamed into the skin.

“They do that in Germany. Makes processing second timers a heck of a lot easier.”

His partner chuckled. “Yeah, could also be real useful in keeping tabs on all those Jews.”

Lucas smiled weakly in his partner’s direction before returning his attention to the man’s arm. “Make note of this too: Looks like some discoloration on the ring finger. The gradient is pretty low so whatever he was wearing on that finger hasn’t been worn in a while. We could have a divorcee on our hands. What’s his name?”

His partner flipped through a notepad for a few seconds before saying, “Tong Ledong.” McAlester paused to scratch his neck and added, “So whaddya think his angle was?”

Lucas shook his head. “It’s hard to say. Maybe he was selling coke. Maybe he was running guns or BTL chips. Maybe the watch was a gift from someone. You never know these days. He might not be the bad guy. One thing is for certain; it seems like someone’s always dying doesn’t it?”

“Hey, be happy. If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t have a job.”

Lucas broke into a smile. “Lets see what else you can tell us Mr. Ledong…”

He hadn’t rolled the dead man’s sleeve halfway up before he found something else. Track marks.

“Didn’t you say they found some coke in the back room?”

“Yeah why?”

“Did they find any needles?”

McAlester shrugged. “Not to my knowledge. They said they found the open brick and a couple of lines all chopped up on a mirror.”

“IV users don’t do nose candy. The high is weaker when you breathe it in. Which means that Ledong wasn’t the one doing lines in the back room.”

“Witness?”

“Or murderer.” Lucas set the arm back down. Lucas clambered back to his feet and dusted himself off. “Have the crime lab people run that back room for prints. They should come up with something good for us to go on.”